Twitter ‘deeply sorry’ about Trump’s tweets on Scarborough’s late intern, but won’t remove

Twitter said Tuesday it will not remove tweets from President Trump that promote a conspiracy theory surrounding a woman who died working at MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s former congressional office in Florida.

“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

“We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”

The widower of Lori Klausutis, the woman who worked in Scarborough’s office, had asked Twitter in writing to remove the posts. Lori Klausutis died in 2001 after an abnormal heart rhythm caused her to lose consciousness and hit her head on a desk in Scarborough’s congressional office in Florida. Her death was ruled an accident. 

“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Timothy Klausutis wrote.

“I’m a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitter’s rules and terms of service. The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence and contrary to the official autopsy is a violation of Twitter’s community rules and terms of service. An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.”  

Trump has repeatedly raised the conspiracy theory, including on Tuesday morning. 

The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020